Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2003
Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, and Yiend (1997) proposed that the decline in performance ef... more Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, and Yiend (1997) proposed that the decline in performance efficiency over time in vigilance tasks (the vigilance decrement) is characterized by “mindlessness” or a withdrawal of attentional effort from the monitoring assignment. We assessed that proposal using measures of perceived mental workload (NASA-TLX) and stress (Dundee Stress State Questionnaire). Two types of vigilance task were employed: a traditional version, wherein observers made button-press responses to signify detection of rarely occurring critical signals, and a modified version, developed by Robertson et al. to promote mindlessness via routinization, wherein button-press responses acknowledged frequently occurring neutral stimulus events and response withholding signified critical signal detection. The vigilance decrement was observed in both tasks, and both tasks generated equally elevated levels of workload and stress, the latter including cognitions relating to performance ad...
Understanding the effects of stressors upon human performance and how these effects differ as a f... more Understanding the effects of stressors upon human performance and how these effects differ as a function of task, information process and/or mediator has been a long-standing endeavor of the scientific community. Research that has attempted to collectively address some of these issues has examined the relationship between a range of stressors, such as anxiety, heat, and noise, upon task performance assessing, for example, alertness and short term memory, with the aim of revealing common features that apply across tasks (e.g., Hockey & Hamilton, 1983). More recently, research has examined the stress-performance relationship and has identified a number of potential factors which may moderate this relationship, such as social support, locus of control, perceived control, trait anxiety, self-efficacy, selfcontrol, and experience (e.g., Weaver, Morgan, Adkins-Holmes, Hall, 1992; see also Bowers, Weaver, & Morgan, 1996). To date, research on stress and performance has been concerned with specific sources of stress in particular contexts with tasks that require specific forms of information processing. A broad based comprehensive descriptive framework has yet to be formulated. The current work aims to develop such a framework, building upon earlier work by Hockey and Hamilton (1983) and Bowers, Weaver and Morgan (1996).
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2015
Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operation requires multiple task types to complete necessary day-to-day... more Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operation requires multiple task types to complete necessary day-to-day activities and operating procedures. The accurate completion of these tasks is necessary for safety-critical domains, as errors and omissions can potentially result in severe consequences. As a result, it is important to determine the cause of human error within various task types. One factor that contributes to human performance is workload. The present experiment is a follow-up, further investigating levels of workload, within a NPP simulated environment, with experienced participants. EEG, ECG, and the NASA-TLX have been shown to be sensitive to changes in workload across domains and are thus utilized in the present experiment to record workload differences. Specifically, the present experiment investigated these participants across 27 sessions for three different NPP task types –checking, detection, and response implementation.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
ABSTRACT The ability to maintain vigilance in scanning the environment for improvised explosive d... more ABSTRACT The ability to maintain vigilance in scanning the environment for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) can mean the difference between life and death for Soldiers. Although this ability to sustain attention varies among individuals, performance feedback training using knowledge of results (KR) has been found to im-prove performance. The present study builds on previous work on the influence of KR on vigilance training to investigate the efficacy of such training for improving upon performance and reducing workload and stress. Results indicated that the KR group achieved better vigilance performance than the No KR group and that the training benefits from KR persisted beyond the training phase. However, KR did not substan-tially affect perceived workload or stress response.
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Objective: The present experiment sought to examine the effects of event rate on a cognitive vigi... more Objective: The present experiment sought to examine the effects of event rate on a cognitive vigilance task. Background: Vigilance, or the ability to sustain attention, is an integral component of human factors research. Vigilance task difficulty has previously been manipulated through increasing event rate. However, most research in this paradigm has utilized a sensory-based task, whereas little work has focused on these effects in relation to a cognitive-based task. Method: In sum, 84 participants completed a cognitive vigilance task that contained either 24 events per minute (low event rate condition) or 40 events per minute (high event rate condition). Performance was measured through the proportion of hits, false alarms, mean response time, and signal detection analyses (i.e., sensitivity and response bias). Additionally, measures of perceived workload and stress were collected. Results: The results indicated that event rate significantly affected performance, such that partici...
With technological developments in robotics and their increasing deployment, human-robot teams ar... more With technological developments in robotics and their increasing deployment, human-robot teams are set to be a mainstay in the future. To develop robots that possess teaming capabilities, such as being able to communicate implicitly, the present study implemented a closed-loop system. This system enabled the robot to provide adaptive aid without the need for explicit commands from the human teammate, through the use of multiple physiological workload measures. Such measures of workload vary in sensitivity and there is large inter-individual variability in physiological responses to imposed taskload. Workload models enacted via closed-loop system should accommodate such individual variability. The present research investigated the effects of the adaptive robot aid vs. imposed aid on performance and workload. Results showed that adaptive robot aid driven by an individualized workload model for physiological response resulted in greater improvements in performance compared to aid that ...
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
ABSTRACT Efforts to mitigate the vigilance decrement include training with feedback in the form o... more ABSTRACT Efforts to mitigate the vigilance decrement include training with feedback in the form of knowledge of results (KR). However, the influences of individual differences on vigilance training and performance are not well understood. Based on previous studies on individual differences in vigilance, the present study investigates the impact of feedback, as well as six individual differences variables (i.e. Attentional Control, Boredom Proneness, Cognitive Failures, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism) on several performance measures. Results indicated that, in general, individual differences did not affect performance or training effectiveness. Hence, KR training may be effective for most operators confronted with monitoring tasks.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
... Shawn Burke ... it has been argued that team decision-making is a process requiring team memb... more ... Shawn Burke ... it has been argued that team decision-making is a process requiring team members to filter raw data, apply individual expertise, communicate relevant information, and often make recommendations to other members (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Converse, 1993, p ...
To provide an evaluative overview of the life and contributions of Raja Parasuraman. From his ear... more To provide an evaluative overview of the life and contributions of Raja Parasuraman. From his earliest contributions in clarifying and explaining the problematic area of vigilance to his most recent interdisciplinary advances in understanding how genotype relates to behavior in complex technical environments, Raja Parasuraman was a giant of human factors and ergonomics. Our present exposition articulates and recounts his many contributions to our science and to science in general beyond the confines of our own discipline. We use the history of scientific contributions, biographical analysis, and reported personal experience to accomplish our overall assessment of the man and his work. We conclude that Parasuraman's contributions were unique, substantive, and seminal, and will continue to influence our science for many years to come. This work will serve as a record for those to come who look to make significant contributions to the goals, aims, and aspirations that we set oursel...
Journal of telemedicine and telecare, Jan 31, 2016
Telehealth systems and mobile health (mHealth) devices allow for the exchange of both physical an... more Telehealth systems and mobile health (mHealth) devices allow for the exchange of both physical and mental healthcare data, as well as information from a patient to a practitioner, or care recipient to caregiver; but there has been little research on why users are motivated to engage with telehealth systems. Given this, we sought to create a measure that satisfactorily assesses human motivation to use telehealth devices. 532 survey responses were used in an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, which tested and retested the feasibility of this new measure. Convergent and divergent validity analyses indicated that the mHealth Technology Engagement Index (mTEI) is a unique measure of motivation. The results indicated that autonomy, competence, relatedness, goal attainment, and goal setting underpin motivation to use telehealth systems. The mTEI shows promise in indexing human motivation to use telehealth technologies. We also discuss the importance of developing...
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2003
Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, and Yiend (1997) proposed that the decline in performance ef... more Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, and Yiend (1997) proposed that the decline in performance efficiency over time in vigilance tasks (the vigilance decrement) is characterized by “mindlessness” or a withdrawal of attentional effort from the monitoring assignment. We assessed that proposal using measures of perceived mental workload (NASA-TLX) and stress (Dundee Stress State Questionnaire). Two types of vigilance task were employed: a traditional version, wherein observers made button-press responses to signify detection of rarely occurring critical signals, and a modified version, developed by Robertson et al. to promote mindlessness via routinization, wherein button-press responses acknowledged frequently occurring neutral stimulus events and response withholding signified critical signal detection. The vigilance decrement was observed in both tasks, and both tasks generated equally elevated levels of workload and stress, the latter including cognitions relating to performance ad...
Understanding the effects of stressors upon human performance and how these effects differ as a f... more Understanding the effects of stressors upon human performance and how these effects differ as a function of task, information process and/or mediator has been a long-standing endeavor of the scientific community. Research that has attempted to collectively address some of these issues has examined the relationship between a range of stressors, such as anxiety, heat, and noise, upon task performance assessing, for example, alertness and short term memory, with the aim of revealing common features that apply across tasks (e.g., Hockey & Hamilton, 1983). More recently, research has examined the stress-performance relationship and has identified a number of potential factors which may moderate this relationship, such as social support, locus of control, perceived control, trait anxiety, self-efficacy, selfcontrol, and experience (e.g., Weaver, Morgan, Adkins-Holmes, Hall, 1992; see also Bowers, Weaver, & Morgan, 1996). To date, research on stress and performance has been concerned with specific sources of stress in particular contexts with tasks that require specific forms of information processing. A broad based comprehensive descriptive framework has yet to be formulated. The current work aims to develop such a framework, building upon earlier work by Hockey and Hamilton (1983) and Bowers, Weaver and Morgan (1996).
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2015
Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operation requires multiple task types to complete necessary day-to-day... more Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operation requires multiple task types to complete necessary day-to-day activities and operating procedures. The accurate completion of these tasks is necessary for safety-critical domains, as errors and omissions can potentially result in severe consequences. As a result, it is important to determine the cause of human error within various task types. One factor that contributes to human performance is workload. The present experiment is a follow-up, further investigating levels of workload, within a NPP simulated environment, with experienced participants. EEG, ECG, and the NASA-TLX have been shown to be sensitive to changes in workload across domains and are thus utilized in the present experiment to record workload differences. Specifically, the present experiment investigated these participants across 27 sessions for three different NPP task types –checking, detection, and response implementation.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
ABSTRACT The ability to maintain vigilance in scanning the environment for improvised explosive d... more ABSTRACT The ability to maintain vigilance in scanning the environment for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) can mean the difference between life and death for Soldiers. Although this ability to sustain attention varies among individuals, performance feedback training using knowledge of results (KR) has been found to im-prove performance. The present study builds on previous work on the influence of KR on vigilance training to investigate the efficacy of such training for improving upon performance and reducing workload and stress. Results indicated that the KR group achieved better vigilance performance than the No KR group and that the training benefits from KR persisted beyond the training phase. However, KR did not substan-tially affect perceived workload or stress response.
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Objective: The present experiment sought to examine the effects of event rate on a cognitive vigi... more Objective: The present experiment sought to examine the effects of event rate on a cognitive vigilance task. Background: Vigilance, or the ability to sustain attention, is an integral component of human factors research. Vigilance task difficulty has previously been manipulated through increasing event rate. However, most research in this paradigm has utilized a sensory-based task, whereas little work has focused on these effects in relation to a cognitive-based task. Method: In sum, 84 participants completed a cognitive vigilance task that contained either 24 events per minute (low event rate condition) or 40 events per minute (high event rate condition). Performance was measured through the proportion of hits, false alarms, mean response time, and signal detection analyses (i.e., sensitivity and response bias). Additionally, measures of perceived workload and stress were collected. Results: The results indicated that event rate significantly affected performance, such that partici...
With technological developments in robotics and their increasing deployment, human-robot teams ar... more With technological developments in robotics and their increasing deployment, human-robot teams are set to be a mainstay in the future. To develop robots that possess teaming capabilities, such as being able to communicate implicitly, the present study implemented a closed-loop system. This system enabled the robot to provide adaptive aid without the need for explicit commands from the human teammate, through the use of multiple physiological workload measures. Such measures of workload vary in sensitivity and there is large inter-individual variability in physiological responses to imposed taskload. Workload models enacted via closed-loop system should accommodate such individual variability. The present research investigated the effects of the adaptive robot aid vs. imposed aid on performance and workload. Results showed that adaptive robot aid driven by an individualized workload model for physiological response resulted in greater improvements in performance compared to aid that ...
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
ABSTRACT Efforts to mitigate the vigilance decrement include training with feedback in the form o... more ABSTRACT Efforts to mitigate the vigilance decrement include training with feedback in the form of knowledge of results (KR). However, the influences of individual differences on vigilance training and performance are not well understood. Based on previous studies on individual differences in vigilance, the present study investigates the impact of feedback, as well as six individual differences variables (i.e. Attentional Control, Boredom Proneness, Cognitive Failures, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism) on several performance measures. Results indicated that, in general, individual differences did not affect performance or training effectiveness. Hence, KR training may be effective for most operators confronted with monitoring tasks.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
... Shawn Burke ... it has been argued that team decision-making is a process requiring team memb... more ... Shawn Burke ... it has been argued that team decision-making is a process requiring team members to filter raw data, apply individual expertise, communicate relevant information, and often make recommendations to other members (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Converse, 1993, p ...
To provide an evaluative overview of the life and contributions of Raja Parasuraman. From his ear... more To provide an evaluative overview of the life and contributions of Raja Parasuraman. From his earliest contributions in clarifying and explaining the problematic area of vigilance to his most recent interdisciplinary advances in understanding how genotype relates to behavior in complex technical environments, Raja Parasuraman was a giant of human factors and ergonomics. Our present exposition articulates and recounts his many contributions to our science and to science in general beyond the confines of our own discipline. We use the history of scientific contributions, biographical analysis, and reported personal experience to accomplish our overall assessment of the man and his work. We conclude that Parasuraman's contributions were unique, substantive, and seminal, and will continue to influence our science for many years to come. This work will serve as a record for those to come who look to make significant contributions to the goals, aims, and aspirations that we set oursel...
Journal of telemedicine and telecare, Jan 31, 2016
Telehealth systems and mobile health (mHealth) devices allow for the exchange of both physical an... more Telehealth systems and mobile health (mHealth) devices allow for the exchange of both physical and mental healthcare data, as well as information from a patient to a practitioner, or care recipient to caregiver; but there has been little research on why users are motivated to engage with telehealth systems. Given this, we sought to create a measure that satisfactorily assesses human motivation to use telehealth devices. 532 survey responses were used in an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, which tested and retested the feasibility of this new measure. Convergent and divergent validity analyses indicated that the mHealth Technology Engagement Index (mTEI) is a unique measure of motivation. The results indicated that autonomy, competence, relatedness, goal attainment, and goal setting underpin motivation to use telehealth systems. The mTEI shows promise in indexing human motivation to use telehealth technologies. We also discuss the importance of developing...
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Papers by James Szalma